Monday, October 14, 2013

Malachi's Story

( This was written about 9 months ago. As tomorrow is Malachi's first birthday. I thought I should finally post it. Sans editing. Like I normally painstakingly do. (Ha ha. Spell check is as close to editing as I get these days/years.)

8:30am Shane announces over coffee that today is the day. I say ok. We wake up the kids and they join us in the library. We watch Baumgartner jump. Wow!

11:00am I eat a snack and take a nap in preparation. We wait. I try to pack in as many calories as I can not knowing how long I have or many reserves I'll need. Each bite could be my last. I finish up some baby laundry and put drinks and things I might want in various places. The baby blankets are stacked neatly on my vanity.

9pm Standing in the kitchen I feel a contraction that makes me grumpy and think Shane must be right. I wish I had gotten more sleep.

11:00 We go up to bed to get more sleep as the nap has worn off. I can't sleep. Shane starts timing- 9 min, 4 min, 13min. I call my sister and say it is probably going to be tonight and to share the information with the rest of the family. We'll call when it gets serious.

1:00 I tell Shane they are getting stronger and to page the midwife and call his mom and Tirzah. And run me a bath. While he is talking to Heike my water breaks. Fortunately I'm on the toilet.

1:45 Heike arrives. I am in the tub. Counting towel thread loops, bathroom tiles, or watching a piece of lint floating in the water. Anything I can think of to focus on. Heike says baby's head is right there and wonders if Tracy will make it in time. The contractions are strong but I'm staying on top of them. Tirzah, my mother-in-law, and the second midwife, Tracy, arrive. Tirzah brings freshly made muffins and half-and-half. I'm really glad because our fridge has been broken for three weeks and we are living out of a cooler on the back porch. Which would not accommodate a Cotstco trip's worth of anything so food is a little scarce.

2:10 I say I want to push. Heike says baby's head is right there 'shoots away' or something like that. I float on my back and wait for the next contraction. I am visualizing getting in bed with the baby and having a good sleep. Soon.

2:40 I feel the baby kick. A contraction starts and I get ready just as it starts to fade away. I wait for the next one. I start drumming my fingers on the tub wall. The contractions get shorter and weaker and very far apart. I feel way more aware of what is going on around me than I think I should be. I ask Heike what's up. She suggests trying a new position. I float a little while longer just breathing through the contractions. Pushing feels like a waste of energy.

3:10 I move to the birth stool and the contractions get a little stronger. Then weaker. I get up to pee, walking starts a contraction. I sit down. It goes away. I'm flummoxed. I'm feeling exhausted already. This was why I was hoping for labor to start in the morning with a full night's rest behind me. So I decide to try and rest instead.

3:40 Shane helps me get back in bed. The contractions are strong and I can't sleep.

4:00 Back to birthing stool. Uterus still trying to go AWOL. Heike gives me some sublingual pills advises on various techniques to jumpstart things again.

4:20 Hurts like crazy burning across my abdomen when I push. Heike suspects full bladder and unceremoniously and almost imperceptibly inserts a catheter. I think 'wow that was not a big deal.' But it still hurts when I push.

4:25 Heike says my body is out of energy. The athletic equivalent of bonking.Tirzah brings up some of Shane's gel shots left over from his bike rides. They taste horrible but I eat two. Supposedly they are different flavors.

4:30 The poor excuse for contractions start up again. I'm feeling fed up. We had planned on Shane delivering the baby but Heike decides he needs to stand behind me and be a restraint. Which is good. He holds me around my shoulders and with the next pseudo contraction I push like there's no tomorrow. It starts to ebb quickly but I keep pushing, grab another breath and go under again. It feels like a do or die moment and I want to finish. Now.

4:31 Out comes Malachi's head- along with about 1000cc of blood. I look down and see him. I am so relieved to finally see some progress for all my work but know it's not done yet.

4:33 Feeling a little betrayed, I give up waiting for any assistance from a contraction and push the rest of him out. Along with another gush of blood.

4:34 I nuzzle Malachi. Shane and I admire him and declare it to be the best birth yet.

4:40 Placenta delivered. more blood. Heike gives me two shots, one of Pitocin one of methergine. More blood. Shane cuts the cord and helps me get in bed, leaving a scene from Donnie Brasco in the bathroom and blood on anyone standing in a 4ft radius of the birth stool.( Over the next few days we find and clean up more remnants of the birth. I just discovered yesterday, three months later, some spatter on the wall that was overlooked before.)Partial abruption found on placenta.

4:45- I start shaking and shivering. Shane gets in bed next to me. I can't talk my teeth are chattering so hard. I don't even notice who has the baby. They give me a hot pad and extra blankets.

5:10 Midwives clean up the delivery site and the trail I left from the bathroom to the bed. Somebody brings me Malachi and he nurses right away. I am finally warm. I take some ibuprofen.

5:40 -Cyril sees Tirzah in the laundry room and assumes it means one thing. He comes to our room with big eyes and is enormously pleased to meet his new little brother. He runs off to wake the other kids and soon we are all gathered together on the bed. The midwives let the kids have family time before they do the newborn exam. The kids ooh and aah over his tiny fingers and toes. Trudy feeds me chicken noodle soup. And muffins with lots of butter.

6:20-The midwives do the newborn exam there on the bed. Nothing of note but a suspected tongue-tie. He weighs in at 8 lbs even. 21 inches. Kateri puts on his first diaper.
Everyone goes home or back to bed. I am put on bed rest for a week until my iron recovers. I lost more blood ( about 2 cups,) than I did with Cyprian. I'm glad I didn't pass out again. And do glad to finally be snuggled up in bed with Shane and the baby.